Diary of a writing, reading, animal loving, travelling Penguin and his mate who love collecting Penguin books, taking photographs and talking to people about Tasmania, Australia

Monday, 14 April 2014

A Bookish Catchup

I have been in a mad reading mood lately and have gotten through a few books in record time which for me is unusual. I'm generally a bit slow about these things. Here are three very different books,

all of which I enjoyed.

The Boy Who Fell To Earth by Kathy Lette is a story about her and her son who has Asperger's Syndrome. It was a great story about her relationship with her husband and soon to be ex-husband. Then she gets a very zany boy friend who seems completely irresponsible but he does show her a different way of relating to her son that is quite useful. I enjoyed this book every step of the way. However if I could change anything, Kathy Lette cracks a lot of jokes. Every other sentence seems to be a joke and while they are quite funny I got weary of all the wise cracks. Sometimes I found the jokes interfered with the story so I would have tamed it down a bit.

The Young Desire it by Kenneth Mackenzie is a coming of age tale written in 1937. It takes place in Western Australia and is the story of a teenage boy dealing with being sent to boarding school in a quite English establishment and his relationships with teachers, students and a girl from his hometown. The writing is absolutely beautiful and it pulls you into the boy's story. I found it a trifle long and would have liked firmer editing but I couldn't argue with the characters and the style of the book.

In Search of Hobart by Tasmanian writer Peter Timms. I have put off reading this book although I have wanted to. When I saw the audio version (unabridged of course) in the library I checked it out. I played it while doing some cooking one day and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you were going to visit Hobart then by all means read this book first. It tells you about the population, the weather, the shops, the culture, the history. I was amazed at how much it covered regarding all aspects of Hobart and there is quite a bit of humour in it which I thought was quite entertaining. Although it's definitely a specialty book to this area it is very interesting and I got a real feel for the city I live in from a different perspective.